This book contributes to current debates regarding purposive transitions to sustainable cities
providing an accessible but critical exploration of sustainability transitions in urban
settings. We have now entered the urban century which is not without its own challenges as
discussed in the preceding book of this series. Urbanization is accompanied by a myriad of
complex and overlapping environmental social and governance challenges - which increasingly
call into question conventional market-based responses and simple top-down government
interventions. Faced with these challenges urban practitioners and scholars alike are
interested in promoting purposive transitions to sustainable cities. The chapters in this
volume contribute to the growing body of literature on city-scale transformative change which
seeks to address a lack of consideration for spatial and urban governance dimensions in
sustainability transitions studies and expand on the basis established in the preceding book.
Drawing on a range of perspectives and written by leading Australian and international urban
researchers the chapters explore contemporary cases from Australia and locate them within the
international context. Australia is on the one hand representative of many OECD countries
while on the other possessing a number of unique attributes that may serve to highlight issues
and potentials internationally. Australia is a highly urbanized country and because of the
federal political structure and the large distances the five largest state-capital cities have
a relatively high degree of autonomy in governance - even dominating the rest of their
respective states and rural hinterlands to a certain extent. This context suggests that
Australian cases can provide interesting test-tube perspectives on processes relevant to urban
sustainability transitions worldwide. This volume presents an extensive overview of theories
concepts approaches and practicalexamples informed by sustainability transitions thinking
offering a unique resource for all urban practitioners and scholars who want to understand and
transition to sustainable urban futures.
